Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Results tagged ‘ Ian Kennedy ’

Fitting, perhaps, that the Yankees will be in Ruth’s home town of Baltimore for the weekend, opening a three-game series with the Orioles. While they’re there, some of the reporters who cover the Yankees are heading over to the Babe Ruth Museum for a tour.

If you’ve never headed down I-95 to ‘invade’ Oriole Park at Camden Yards, let’s just say that there are plenty of Yankees fans who do. You should definitely put this one on your travelogue. It’s a great ballpark and the Inner Harbor is quite nice for walking, shopping and eating, especially on a day as nice as this one.

Now here’s the story with this one. Brian Bruney is starting for the Yankees instead of Ian Kennedy due to weather concerns. A Yankees spokesman said that Joe Girardi was
concerned about a looming rain storm that was projected to hit the Kauffman
Stadium area shortly after the scheduled 7:10 p.m. start time.

If the rain passed and play resumed, the Yankees said, Kennedy would then
pitch. Interesting move by Girardi, but what kind of message do you take from this if you’re Bruney?

UPDATE: And the parade of relievers continues on, as here’s Billy Traber. I guess Girardi figures if he can get four innings from his bullpen and then use Kennedy for four or five, that’d be good enough. But there’s a giant green blob on the radar and that might be a bit optimistic.

Share this:

Like this:

Ian Kennedy just needed 27 minutes to get through the top of the first inning, and hopefully that doesn’t set the tone for the rest of this game. The Yankees’ first three games of the season have been pretty brisk affairs, with times of game of 2:31, 3:10 and 2:45. The Yankees always have consistently longer-than-league average games, so those numbers translate to playing with their cars double-parked by comparison.

Not that it matters much right now to Joe Girardi. Having been through what he’s battling right now, you could probably tell the skipper that Babe Ruth just walked into the clubhouse and he probably wouldn’t have much of a reaction. Girardi is resting on the couch in his office and spent most of the afternoon sleeping, as Rob Thomson gets his day behind the controls.

Share this:

Like this:

Bobby Abreu was standing at his locker last night and talking about how the Yankees are going to be able to do the little things to win ballgames this year — bunt runners over, steal bases, hit-and-run a little bit more. He didn’t out-and-out criticize Joe Torre, that’s not Abreu’s style, but it was clear that the long-time National Leaguer liked what he saw out of the Yankees.

The more you see out of Phil Hughes, also, there’s more reason to be encouraged about his bright future. Hughes carries himself like a veteran and looked sharp with both his fastball and curve last night, turning in a quality start against the Blue Jays.

Tonight Ian Kennedy, the least heralded of the Big Three, gets his turn against the Rays. Kennedy was telling us a story yesterday about how he went to an Outback Steakhouse with Joba Chamberlain, who gets recognized everywhere he goes. Someone offered Chamberlain a free dessert, which he happily scarfed down. Kennedy, sitting at the same table and with three big league starts under his belt, got no such special treatment.

Today, April 4, is my birthday, and here’s my favorite gift so far — the DVD of Billy Joel’s Yankee Stadium show in 1990, which I’ve got on the surround sound right now as the Pianoman cranks out “New York State of Mind.” I’ve seen Billy twice in concert – once at the Garden and once at the facility formerly known as the Continental Airlines Arena – and he’s always a bet for a great show. This is a nice trip down memory lane.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.